More than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies — making allergies the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Allergies are basically your immune system’s overreaction to normally harmless substances, such as pet dander, pollen or certain foods, and they can affect anyone.
[Read: How to Treat Seasonal Allergies.]
Types of Allergies
— Drug and medication allergy. Medications that can cause allergies include antibiotics, insulin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
— Mold allergy. Molds and mildew can trigger an allergic reaction. Because these fungi grow indoors and outdoors, a mold allergy can occur year round.
— Pollen allergy. This type of allergy is set off by pollen from grasses, plants and trees. Seasonal allergies, also called hay fever and allergic rhinitis, are usually at their worst in the spring and/or fall, depending on what type of pollen you’re allergic to.
— Food allergy. Common allergens include milk, peanuts and shellfish. An allergic reaction occurs within minutes of eating the food, or in severe cases breathing in particles of the food.
— Latex allergy. If you have a latex allergy, you may have an allergic reaction if you come in contact with latex — either through skin contact or by breathing latex fibers in the air. Natural rubber latex gloves, some bandages, balloons and condoms all contain latex. Synthetic latex does not cause latex allergy symptoms.
— Insect allergy. Bees, wasps and fire ants are the most common stinging insects that can cause an allergic reaction. Dust mites and cockroaches are the most common cause of year-round allergy and asthma.
— Pet allergy. Allergies to pets with fur are common. When you have a pet allergy, you are actually allergic to a protein that’s found in the pet’s dander (dead skin cells), saliva and urine.
The incidence of allergies, including food allergies, seems to be increasing. It’s not precisely clear what might account for that, though theories abound, like the so-called hygiene hypothesis. That posits that our modern obsession with cleanliness has left children less exposed to germs that equip their immune systems to tackle real threats. And so, as it relates to allergies, “our bodies are looking for something to basically attack,” explains Dr. Joseph T. Inglefield III, an allergist in Hickory, North Carolina, and a fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
[SEE: Best Allergy Medicines: Antihistamines]
Allergy Symptoms
As the body tries to rid itself of the perceived threat, a person develops symptoms that can range from mild to severe and sometimes fatal:
— Itchy, watery eyes
— Runny or stuffy nose
— Sneezing
— Hives, or red bumps that can itch on the skin
— Stomach cramps
— Vomiting
— Swelling of the mouth and face
— Wheezing or difficulty breathing
— Feeling faint or light-headed
In the most dire scenario, a person may experience anaphylaxis, or anaphylactic shock, a severe life-threatening allergic reaction, for example to foods like nuts, eggs or shellfish, an insect sting, medication or latex. In the most serious cases, anaphylaxis can result in swelling of the airways that prohibits breathing or a dangerous drop in blood pressure, which can be fatal.
[READ: Food Allergy vs. Food Sensitivity: What’s the Difference?]
Allergy Causes
Antibodies, or blood proteins, are produced to counteract diseases and other foreign substances that induce an immune response. And the antibody immunoglobulin, or IgE, causes allergic reactions. Certain people are more likely than others to have this so-called IgE-mediated reaction to an allergen, whether that’s a mold spore or a medication, pet dander or pollen.
Factors that increase the risk for developing allergies:
— Being a child — although many adults also develop new allergies.
— Race, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians are at higher risk than whites.
— Most strongly influencing one’s chances of developing allergies is genetics, or a family history of allergies.
Allergy Prevention
While you can’t change who you’re related to, there are some things families can do that may lower a child’s risks of developing allergies.
Breastfeeding is promoted to bolster overall health and immunity, and when foods are introduced, it’s recommended that kids get a wide variety.
Food allergies
Food avoidance was once encouraged as a strategy, but in healthy children without present allergies that’s not advised today. That’s because the latest data indicates that introducing some potentially allergenic foods, like peanuts, early could be protective. In particular, research on infants at high risk for developing a peanut allergy shows that when they were given peanut butter products when they were at least four months old and less than 11 months, they were far less likely to develop a peanut allergy.
“This was a really big breakthrough,” says Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatrician at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, who has led separate research on food allergy prevalence.
Environmental allergies
In other cases, it’s still thought that limiting certain exposures may help, like with dust mites that might trigger allergy or asthma symptoms. If your child is at high risk of developing allergies, there are steps you can take to control dust mites, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. It recommends using zippered, ‘allergen-impermeable’ covers on pillows and mattresses and wash bedding in hot water weekly. Indoor humidity should be kept below 50%. If possible, carpets and upholstered furniture should be removed from your infant’s bedroom.
Why Your Allergies Are So Bad
You’re not imagining it. Seasonal allergies from pollen are getting worse. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology cites climate change as a contributing factor to worse allergens and more severe allergy seasons. According to the academy, climate change affects the production and protein composition of pollen and the way it disperses. It also changes rainfall and wind patterns. Changes in the climate impact the pollen seasons of trees, grasses and plants by increasing the amount of pollen they produce and by extending the duration of the pollen season.
You can mitigate the effects by showering after being outdoors, staying inside on windy days, wearing a pollen mask and starting allergy medications before symptoms begin.
Allergy Testing
For all those who have a doctor-diagnosed allergy, many more report that they think they have allergies — but have never confirmed it. Researchers find, for example, that a significant proportion of people who think they’re allergic to food aren’t — and may be avoiding it unnecessarily. What’s more, some people may have a food intolerance, or another distinct issue like celiac disease, in which wheat causes an immune response — rather than, say, a wheat allergy. (In that case, problems attributed to celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity often aren’t, so sorting that out can be important too.)
“There are so many food-related conditions,” Gupta says. “So getting into an allergist and getting tested is really critical to truly determine if it is a real food allergy, and then to learn how to manage it.”
In addition to going over a person’s family history and discussing symptoms, allergy testing is frequently done to home in on what precisely is causing the allergic reaction.
“The most accurate method is skin testing — where we take a little bit of the allergen and we expose the person’s skin to that and see if they develop an allergic reaction on the skin,” says Dr. Thomas Luft an internist at UnityPoint Health practicing in Pekin, Illinois. “We look for a little welt that kind of looks like a mosquito bite — it turns red, and kind of itchy — that tells us they’re allergic to that particular or specific thing.”
Allergy blood tests are also sometimes used. In that case, instead of taking the allergen to the patient and testing it on their skin to see if they’re allergic, blood is drawn and taken to the lab to test for allergy-specific antibodies. But this type of testing is less sensitive and accurate than skin testing, Luft says.
[READ The Best Home Food Sensitivity Tests]
Is There a Cure for Allergies?
Some people who have an allergy to a specific food, for example, develop a natural tolerance to that food with age, so that they essentially “grow out” of their allergy. But there’s no cure, per se, for allergies.
Even so, there are a number of things that can be done to reduce or even essentially eliminate ongoing symptoms, the most powerful of which is to avoid the allergen. In some of the most dramatic examples, people who move to a different area where certain pollens that triggered allergic reactions aren’t prevalent, report experiencing dramatic improvement. And in a simpler more confined scenario, a person who is allergic to cat dander, who doesn’t keep a cat in the home and avoids encountering cats elsewhere can also avoid uncomfortable allergic reactions.
Avoiding the allergen is first and foremost key and by far the most successful strategy, Luft says. However, he and other experts note that to do this 100% of the time, in all scenarios, is often impossible.
So medications like antihistamines and steroids that are available over-the-counter as well as some prescription medications are sometimes recommended to reduce symptoms, like those that may occur with seasonal allergies.
In some cases where symptoms are more severe and persistent and to avoid long-term medication use, allergy shots, or immunotherapy, may be recommended. “That’s exposing them to just very tiny amounts of the allergen incrementally,” Luft explains, so that the person’s immune system adjusts. “Then they have less allergic response when they’re exposed to an allergen.”
This involves getting regular injections of increasing amounts of allergens initially about once or twice a week during a build-up phase usually lasting from three to six months. Then, during the maintenance phase, injections are given with longer periods of time in between, ranging from two to four weeks.
It can take a year to see improvement, and shots are generally continued for three to five years. After that, a wait-and-see approach is typically taken — where some patients do well after the shots are stopped, and others see symptoms return that require additional treatment.
With any medications — even those obtained over the counter — it’s important to discuss side effects, and that’s especially true for drugs taken on an ongoing basis. Side effects vary by the drug but can include drowsiness, and even in some cases an allergic reaction to an allergy medicine. The primary risk with allergy shots is having a severe allergic reaction to the allergen up to anaphylaxis. Given that, it’s always important that allergy shots are administered in a doctor’s office where swift action could be taken if a severe reaction occurs to prevent serious problems from occurring, Luft says.
In addition, epinephrine auto-injectors, aka EpiPens, are prescribed; these can be self-administered if a person is in the throes of a severe allergic reaction. While it’s a simple injection, experts emphasize it’s still critical to be educated by a health provider in advance and trained on how to use an EpiPen.
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Allergies: Types, Symptoms and How to Find Relief originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 11/19/24: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
